Police release details of murderous Las Vegas rampage

The couple that walked into a Las Vegas pizza restaurant and killed two police officers on Sunday then draped one body with a “don’t tread on me” flag and swastika and pinned a menacing note on the other body, authorities said Monday.

Moments later, Jerad Miller, 31, and his wife Amanda Miller, 22, fatally shot another man in a nearby Walmart before officers cornered them, Assistant Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a press briefing. Amanda Miller then shot her husband and herself, he said.

McMahill said the restaurant shootings were captured on video.

“No doubt the suspects had some kind of ideology along the lines of militia and white supremacists,” McMahill said. “They believe law enforcement is the oppressor.”

The horror began unfolding at about 11:22 a.m. Sunday at CiCi’s restaurant, where the officers were having lunch. The Millers came in and Jerad Miller walked past the officers’ booth, turned and pulled out a handgun, shooting Officer Igor Soldo, 31, in the head. The couple then shot Officer Alyn Beck, 41, multiple times, McMahill said.

The officers’ bodies were dragged onto the ground, and McMahill said the flag and swastika were draped on Beck’s body. A note saying that the attack was the beginning of a revolution was pinned on Soldo, McMahill said.

The couple then retreated to a nearby Walmart, fired a shot and warned everyone to get out. McMahill said Joseph Wilcox, 31, was in the store and was carrying a concealed weapon. Wilcox walked past Amanda Miller and confronted her husband. Amanda Miller then fatally shot Wilcox, McMahill said.

Police rushed to scene, and after a shoot-out the couple was trapped in a corner of the store, McMahill said. While officers were awaiting a SWAT team, Amanda Miller fatally shot her husband, then herself.

Hours later, police cordoned off the Oak Tree Apartments, and some residents told the Las Vegas Sun the pair lived there — and had bragged of plans to commit a mass shooting.

“They were handing out white-power propaganda and were talking about doing the next Columbine,” neighbor Brandon Moore told the Sun.

Other residents, including Sue Hale, told the Sun the couple had claimed to be at Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch during an April standoff between militia members and federal agents. The duo had professed strong support for Bundy, who had been cited for grazing his cattle on public land without a permit. Bundy has said he no knowledge of the couple.

“Yap, yap, yap. They were always running their mouths,” Hale said of the duo.

Lafayette, Ind., Police Chief Pat Flannelly said his office was contacted by the Clark County, Nev., coroner’s office asked to “follow up with possible relatives here. We have information they were here for a time. … They have ties to the area.”

The couple married Sept. 22, 2012, and lived in the 1200 block of Weaver Street in Lafayette. A Facebook photo posted by Amanda on Jan. 4, indicated they were leaving Lafayette.

Gillespie said the couple walked into the restaurant Sunday and immediately shot the officers. One of the officers was able to return fire, Gillespie said.

The suspects then killed a third person at a nearby Walmart, he said. Police arrived and gunfire was exchanged. Then, “it appears the female suspect shot the male suspect, then took her own life,” Gillespie said.

Beck, a Las Vegas officer for more than a dozen years, was the married father of three. Soldo, an eight-year veteran of the force, is survived by a wife and baby, police said.

“What precipitated this event we do not know,” the sheriff said. “My officers were simply having lunch.”

Pauline Pacheco was shopping at Walmart when she saw the armed man and grabbed her father to escape, KLAS-TV reported.

“We saw when the man was walking, he was shouting, yelling bad words, and suddenly he had a gun,” she told the station. “It was terrible, it was terrible. That man was crazy.”

Assistant Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the male suspect yelled “everyone get out” before shooting at Walmart. The suspects then walked to the back of the store, he said.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. expressed its condolences in a statement and that the company is working with police on the investigation. CiCi’s Pizza said in a statement the company was deeply saddened by the shooting and would keep the location closed until further notice.